What is the best thermal paste

[Looper_U]

Guys I'm trying to cool a very hot 🔥🔥 GPU and every effort of reapplying thermal paste seems like a waste, the GPU is still on fire no matter what I do, I even place thermal pads on the vrams just in case and all try another thermal paste from a dead GPU and things turn around instantly, what is the best high quality thermal paste? I don't mind buying and storing them

[1715531320]

1715531320

[1715531320]

1715531320

[adaseb]

Most likely the thermal paste is not the reason its running hot. Maybe you got bad fans or the GPU is somehow damaged.

In my opinion, I wouldn't apply thermal paste on an old GPU (3+ years) reason why is because usually the stock thermal paste is stuck on. And you will need to break it apart to seperate the GPU from the heatsink and while you do this, you might form microcracks in the solder joints.

I ended up destroying 20% of my GPUs this way. It worked however after a few weeks, i noticed one by one they started to die. And in the end, the temp difference wasn't even noticable. If you want to do a thermal repaste, do it on new GPUs not old.

[batsonxl]

arctic mx-4 and GD900
arctic is bit expensive im using GD900 it 1-2C less than mx4 but waaayyy cheaper. Im using this 2 very long time and happy with both.
Your issue is not thermal paste. In furmark test if gpu jumps to 80C it means faulty heatpipe.

[Looper_U]

Most likely the thermal paste is not the reason its running hot. Maybe you got bad fans or the GPU is somehow damaged.

In my opinion, I wouldn't apply thermal paste on an old GPU (3+ years) reason why is because usually the stock thermal paste is stuck on. And you will need to break it apart to seperate the GPU from the heatsink and while you do this, you might form microcracks in the solder joints.

I ended up destroying 20% of my GPUs this way. It worked however after a few weeks, i noticed one by one they started to die. And in the end, the temp difference wasn't even noticable. If you want to do a thermal repaste, do it on new GPUs not old.

I'm 💯 sure that it's the thermal paste, things works better once I replaced the thermal paste with the one from an old dead GPU, actually this shows that my thermal paste is worse probably fake

[adaseb]

Unless you bought the GPU used and the previous owner had no thermal paste and used toothpaste instead (you can actually use this) then I don't see thermal paste being the issue due to age. I had many old old old GPUs (>5 years) and they all had factory original thermal paste which was pretty much hard as a rock, however the paste still worked. And changing the thermal paste to a newer and higher quality only improved cooling by a few Degrees.

Like the above poster said, if you start to mine and your temp jumps to like 80C instantely then its not the thermal paste. I had this happen before and could be your heat core, bad PSU or bad GPU components like MOSFETs or capacitors. Just buy the cheapest thermal paste at your computer store for like $5 and see if it fixes your issue. If it doesn't then the more expensive one won't either.

[nc50lc]

You must also consider the brands and models of your GPUs.
Different Video cards have different "normal" temperature range when in use, it may be hot but it could be a safe range for your GPU.

[Nhazwrath]

short story mildly amusing.

so i went to look at a friends PC waaaay outside of anything remotely like a town.  he told me his PC was acting up yadda.......

no real clue what i was going to find mostly was just going to look at it.  I discover that its a AMD FX8350 8 core with a cosair liquid cooler on it. and boy its running hot Hot HOT.  every 5-10 minutes it was self protecting and shutting down.  Cooler is Blowing hot air like no tomorrow.

I was a little stumped due to the fact that everything appeared to be working just fine Other then the fact its overheating for reasons i just cannot determine.   after some deliberation i pop off the corsair liquid pump that's bolted on to the CPU.  the paste was Rock hard.  its been running hot for a loooong time id say.  

here's where it gets amusing.  so I didn't have any paste i cant put it back together due to the paste being in a dry cracked pile.  so..  what to use?  whats available......welp after some phone research i decided to completely ignore just about everyone's opinion of what to use.   Went to his garage and low and behold hes got old style in a tube Blue Wheel bearing grease.  

Yup i used a finger of wheel bearing grease.  You would think that it would melt out but no its designed for high temp under Way heavier load then a CPU.  I was more worried about heat transfer rate.  

Not only that it doesn't get hard and its Non conductive.  

That was 5 years ago... And it its running 30 degrees colder, still going.  

EDIT:  it was Not my intent to promote wheel bearing grease as the product to use.  If you have access to thermal paste Do That instead.  the wheel bearing grease will Do in a pinch if you have it and nothing else.

[anu1908]

that's a nice story, but not everything would be that smooth sailing. op, don't start to look for grease just because of it. imo try to change the cooler too if you have a spare. just how hot your gpu is btw? what model is it?

[Stanlo]

Most likely the thermal paste is not the reason its running hot. Maybe you got bad fans or the GPU is somehow damaged.

In my opinion, I wouldn't apply thermal paste on an old GPU (3+ years) reason why is because usually the stock thermal paste is stuck on. And you will need to break it apart to seperate the GPU from the heatsink and while you do this, you might form microcracks in the solder joints.

I ended up destroying 20% of my GPUs this way. It worked however after a few weeks, i noticed one by one they started to die. And in the end, the temp difference wasn't even noticable. If you want to do a thermal repaste, do it on new GPUs not old.

I'm 💯 sure that it's the thermal paste, things works better once I replaced the thermal paste with the one from an old dead GPU, actually this shows that my thermal paste is worse probably fake

Glad it worked for you, actually we have better thermal paste like mx4 for a reason so don't listen to those saying there is no difference, some GPUs are very hard to handle so strong thermal paste will make you understand what you are doing more

[Looper_U]

Unless you bought the GPU used and the previous owner had no thermal paste and used toothpaste instead (you can actually use this) then I don't see thermal paste being the issue due to age. I had many old old old GPUs (>5 years) and they all had factory original thermal paste which was pretty much hard as a rock, however the paste still worked. And changing the thermal paste to a newer and higher quality only improved cooling by a few Degrees.

Like the above poster said, if you start to mine and your temp jumps to like 80C instantely then its not the thermal paste. I had this happen before and could be your heat core, bad PSU or bad GPU components like MOSFETs or capacitors. Just buy the cheapest thermal paste at your computer store for like $5 and see if it fixes your issue. If it doesn't then the more expensive one won't either.

You aren't listening to me, my GPU is Vega 56 and it goes up to 75°C when mining, not without a load or aggressive work though but this thing used to stay around 56°C max before and the thermal paste I bought brand new aren't working, high temp stays the same or even more worsen until I used a thermal paste from a dead GPU, that thermal paste is more thicker and this fixed the high temp, how is this hard to believe or understand? 🤷🏽‍♂️🤷🏽‍♂️🤷🏽‍♂️

[Looper_U]

that's a nice story, but not everything would be that smooth sailing. op, don't start to look for grease just because of it. imo try to change the cooler too if you have a spare. just how hot your gpu is btw? what model is it?

Brah it's not the freaking cooler it's the thermal paste, I've fixed it and it's working back again but not with those cheap nameless thermal paste this is why I open this topic, I'm going for thermal MX-4 cos I believe they will come in handle again

[FP91G]

that's a nice story, but not everything would be that smooth sailing. op, don't start to look for grease just because of it. imo try to change the cooler too if you have a spare. just how hot your gpu is btw? what model is it?

Brah it's not the freaking cooler it's the thermal paste, I've fixed it and it's working back again but not with those cheap nameless thermal paste this is why I open this topic, I'm going for thermal MX-4 cos I believe they will come in handle again

I also paid a lot of money for MX-4 thermal paste, and then they recommended GD900 for aliexpress.
The difference is minimal, it's a fact. And the price is completely different.
Change it once a year at the beginning of summer, if the video card is not guaranteed or there are no seals, but then it is better to do this after 2 years.

[Bitbtc8]

Guys I'm trying to cool a very hot 🔥🔥 GPU and every effort of reapplying thermal paste seems like a waste, the GPU is still on fire no matter what I do, I even place thermal pads on the vrams just in case and all try another thermal paste from a dead GPU and things turn around instantly, what is the best high quality thermal paste? I don't mind buying and storing them

You don't have to buy many and store them, I hardly change thermal paste on GPUs in a whole year unless you are buying only used graphic cards, with a new GPUs you will have used them for mining at max of two years before even thinking if changing the pads